BACKWARD GLANCES - Siewert gives new meaning to overtime pay

Thursday

Jun 28, 2012 at 12:01 AMJun 28, 2012 at 5:16 PM

See what was happening in Redwood Falls 50, 25, and 10 years ago this week.

Joshua Dixon, Staff Writer

1962—50 years ago
• Sunwood Nursing Home prepared to accept its first eight residents.
The new nursing home was state-of-the-art in 1962, with thermostats and intercom in each room. Room and board costs came to $150 a month, not including any extra patient care costs.
• Park board chairman Tom Tyson estimated that approximately 2,000 people per day were visiting Ramsey Park on Sundays.
• Residents and former residents of Beaver Falls held their third annual homecoming picnic.
• A Franklin man broke both ankles and a wrist jumping off his porch roof when a gas blow torch he was using to burn off old paint caught fire, and he feared the tank would explode.
• Otto Siewert, the Redwood Falls umpire who officiated at the state high school tournament, was jokingly called a mercenary.
It seems umpires got extra pay when games ran into extra innings, and Siewert officiated at all four of the games that went into overtime.
1987—25 years ago
• The dock at the Lake Redwood boat launching area was left on dry land after the water level was lowered for repairs to the dam under the Highway 19 bridge.
• When fastpitch legend Eddie Feigner demonstrated the baseball-throwing arts for an exhibition game at Memorial Field, he pitched one inning blindfolded, and pitched another inning from second base.
• Cal Norcutt retired after 17 years as Redwood Falls postmaster. He recalled that he started working at the local post office in the early 1960s, there were two city mail deliveries a day.
• Police Chief Mike Gerrety warned residents to lock their cars and take valuables inside after a rash of thefts from parked cars hit the city.
• Thirty-six Redwood Falls-Morton High School German students returned home from a three-week visit to German. As it happened,
President Reagan also happened to be in Germany at the time, where he made his famous challenge to tear down the Berlin Wall.
2002—10 years ago
• The United State Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of a case brought by two Redwood Falls High School graduates.
Greg Wersal, represented by Erick Kaardal, argued that Minnesota’s rules dictating what a judge may and may not say when running for election amounted to an unconstitutional gag order, and the Supreme Court agreed.
• St. Catherine’s Catholic Church dedicated its new addition, with the previous church now serving as the social hall.
• After the price of mailing a first class letter raised from 34 to 37 cents, the Redwood Falls post office sold about 25,000 three cent stamps in one day.
• Corey Boe and Brady Hagert played in the Lions All-Star Baseball series in Chaska.
• A local gardener near Ramsey Park sprayed her vegetable garden with deer repellent, then discovered that in hot weather it made her veggies smell like rotten eggs.

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